1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to an electronic component mounting apparatus including a movable beam with a driving source, a mounting head placed on the beam so as to move along the beam, and a suction nozzle placed on the mounting head, which picks up an electronic component by suction and mounts it to a print board.
2. Description of the Related Art
The electronic component mounting apparatus of the conventional art is disclosed, for example, in a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-165096. In this publication, a mounting apparatus having two linear motor axes, each of which has a pair of component mounting heads, is disclosed. Four component mounting heads use suction to pick up electronic components from component supply units. The apparatus also performs a recognition operation for recognizing the component and a mounting operation for mounting the component to a circuit substrate. Some portions of these operations are performed simultaneously.
In the apparatus described above, when a linear motor is used as a driving source of the linear motor axis (beam), movable elements generate heat upon the operation of the linear motor. The generated heat is then transmitted to the beam. Therefore, the temperature of beam increases, causing the thermal deformation of the beam. There is also a possibility of deteriorated accuracy in positioning of the beam.
The invention is directed to an electronic component mounting apparatus free from thermal deformation of its components. The invention is also directed to a mounting apparatus with a cooling system, which is much simpler than conventional cooling systems, such as a water cooling system.
The invention provides an electronic component mounting apparatus including a pair of guides disposed substantially parallel to each other and a beam for moving along the pair of guides. A mounting head is disposed on the beam so as to move in the direction of the beam. A suction nozzle is disposed on the mounting head for picking up an electronic component by vacuum suction and for mounting the electronic component on a print board. A linear motor is included for driving the beam, which has a fixed element disposed on the guide and a movable element disposed on the beam. A heat-insulating portion is disposed between the beam and the movable element.
The invention also provides an electronic component mounting apparatus including a pair of guides disposed substantially parallel to each other and a beam disposed on the pair of the guides so as to move along the pair of guides. A mounting head is disposed on the beam so as to move in the same direction as the beam and mounts an electronic component on a print board. A linear motor is disposed which includes a fixed element disposed on the beam in the direction of the beam and a movable element connected to the mounting head. A thermal conduction portion, which has a thermal conductivity higher than a thermal conductivity of the beam, is disposed in the beam in the direction of the beam. In this configuration, the movable element couples with the fixed element to operate as the linear motor.